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Dear Subscribers:

Great NetFamily news! As you read this, our new site goes live on the Web: We've moved from SageFamily.com to NetFamilyNews.org, much more closely reflecting the non-profit public service for parents that we are (and always have been).

Here's our lineup for this third week of May:

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Web News Briefs

  1. Congress's quandary

    Somewhat understandably, US lawmakers apparently feel Congress must do something about violence and hate sites on the World Wide Web. So far most of the activity specific to children and violence has been in the Senate. According to the New York Times, last week the Senate approved a measure that requires ISPs to provide free filtering software. This week the Senate approved a measure that would make it a crime to use the Internet to teach someone to make a bomb. Another effort is in process to regulate the sale of guns online. Of course, any laws of these sorts would only affect Web site publishers in the United States. They wouldn't control, for example, bomb-recipe Web sites run on servers in other countries.

    To editorialize a bit now: It can be very frustrating - to parents, teachers, lawmakers, and other people who care about children's welfare - to deal with a global medium that can't be controlled or regulated by any government or entity. The good news about this unprecedented media challenge is that it forces us all to figure this out together. Congress's efforts are important to the discussion. Parents need to have a strong voice in it, too. If you have any comments - about recent initiatives (Congress's, the One Click Away effort) or any other effort in process in the US - do e-mail us. Note the irony of Senator McCain's effort (reported just below) actually to keep Internet regulation at bay!

  2. The Internet as electioneer

    Seems that Internet initiatives are a must for all presidential candidates these days. Two weeks ago it was Al Gore with his One Click Away initiative (reported here). This week it's Sen. John McCain (R) of Arizona introducing the Internet Regulatory Freedom Act.

    According to InternetNews.com, the senator says that Congress's assurance of no Internet regulation will help promote "the development and deployment of advanced telecommunication services nationwide." Such services are critical to our economic and social well-being, McCain says, because information technology now accounts for over one-third of our economic growth. He also sees advanced telecommunications services (like high-speed connections to people's homes) as "the great equalizer, eliminating the disadvantages of geographic isolation and socioeconomic status." (It also looks like he aims to level the playing field between the cable companies and the phone companies, since cable companies have the advantage right now, he says.)

    Regardless of whether we agree or not, one thing does seem clear: the Internet will figure very prominently in the forthcoming election, from candidates' Web sites to campaign initiatives! Net Family News will keep you posted, of course.

  3. New life for the e-rate?

    The FCC is expected to help increase funding for US schools' and libraries' Internet connectivity, News.com reports. A $1 billion increase (over last year) is expected to be voted on by Congress next week. News.com says the e-rate has so far connected 80,000 schools and libraries.

  4. Surfing job-seekers/college grads

    This year 80% of college graduates will use the Internet to look for jobs, reports NUA Internet Surveys. SBC Internet Services did the survey, which also found that 66% of grads will e-mail their resumes or CVs to prospective employers. Love those savings in printing costs!

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One Very Connected School: Part 2

Last week we interviewed Carol Martin, technology coordinator at Logan Elementary, a pre-K-5 school in Baltimore County. She described a three-year Internet connectivity program that put 'Net-connected computers in third-graders' homes as well as classrooms. It has had positive cumulative impact on those third-graders' (now graduating fifth-graders) reading levels. But we wanted to hear a little about how individual students and families were affected by this new connection to the 'Net.

"We interviewed eight students [this week] for part of the assessment component of the [connectivity] project," Carol told us. "One of the questions was, 'What have you done as a result of having the computer in your home that you are most proud of?'

"About half of the students stated that they were most proud of being able to help their family members by teaching them how to use word-processing, databases, the Internet, downloading information from the Internet, e-mail, etc. They have helped their parents with their papers for college courses (for those parents who have returned to school), resumes, etc. They especially like to be able to help their older siblings.

"They are also proud about the troubleshooting skills they have learned and have helped extended family members and neighbors with their computers.

"A teacher who works with the Internet said it changed the way she teaches - that now she wouldn't know how to teach without the computer," Carol added.

One example of how a Logan Elementary family has put the Internet to use is "The Future of Magic", a kind of resume Web site about Ken and James Driscoll. James, a fifth-grader, is part of the Logan connectivity program that two years ago connected all third-graders at home and at school. "At ages 8 and 11," their Web site says, "James and Ken were selected as the Best Young Magicians by the Magicians Alliance of the Eastern States." They've performed live and on television.

As for their Web site, Carol says, "I believe that the three-year period of having the computer in James's home has given the family the opportunity and basic training to create the page. Like their magic performances, it has been a family project. All of the family members are involved in this venture…. I feel the project, or the connection, has had a great influence, as far as learning the value of having a Web site as part of this family venture."

If your family has worked together on a Web site and you'd like to share the URL, please send it right along - to feedback@netfamilynews.org.

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Connected classrooms: research and researchers

As for empirical research on the impact of 'Net connectivity in schools, there isn't a great deal out there. In fact, at a conference we attended last fall for the research and new media communities, we heard researchers calling for more research, more funding for it, and more demand (from parents, too) for research on the impact of digital media on kids. But two of our sources did cite a very comprehensive annual study published in EdWeek. The latest, which appeared last October (this is the index page) looks at test-scores impact; case studies about individual teachers' and classrooms' experiences; planning; funding; standards; and best practices, state-by-state.

This week, however, the New York Times ran a story headed, "Educator Questions Need for Computers in Classrooms". The educator, Gary Chapman, head of an ed-tech research project at the University of Texas, is challenging the Clinton administration's call to connect every classroom in the US by 2000. It's not that he doesn't like computers in classrooms; he's just not crazy about the administration's goal, because he says it may move focus away from what's really needed to improve education in this country.

We'd love to hear your opinion on technology in the classroom. What impact have you seen on a child of yours? Do e-mail us.

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A commentary on filtering at home

This week from CyberAngels, executive director Parry Aftab offers her latest thinking on filtering. For more detail on types and names of filtering products, go to the CyberAngels filtering page. "Ever since the tragedy in Littleton, I have noticed huge increases in the number of visitors we have to our filtering pages. We've also been getting a lot more e-mail, with parents asking if filtering software can monitor where their children go online. They seem to be very concerned about tracking whether their children surf violence sites. Most of the good ones do. Net Nanny and Cyber Patrol, the two most popular products, both monitor and give parents a report of where their children surf, if this feature is engaged.

"Good filtering products have a preset 'bad site list,' which includes certain kinds of sites that have to have already been screened, either by people or by special software. Many products have various categories of sites they block, such as violence, sex, drugs, bomb-building sites, alcohol, hate sites, etc. Most allow you to choose which categories you want to block. But, given the fact that there are more than 160,000 new Web sites registered each month, no filtering product can hope to keep up. So they do a second screening, using certain keywords that typically appear in undesirable sites. The keywords may include vulgarities and sexual terms. Good products block sites that use these keywords in combination with others, to keep from blocking innocent sites, such as a Perdue chicken breast recipe site.

"But the most important feature, in my humble opinion, is the out-going blocking. This prevents children from intentionally or accidentally giving out personal information to strangers online. When they type their names, xx's appear.

"SurfWatch is the only major product to my knowledge that does not block outgoing information. Make sure the product you purchase includes this feature. I'll say it again (I'm famous for this one): 'Information doesn't hurt children - *people* hurt children.' You never want a stranger to know how to find your child offline. (I deal with too many of these cases as it is.)

"While we describe the types of features the various filtering products offer, we keep coming back to the essential issue: Parents need to decide what should be filtered and what should be available to their child. And this should be done on a child-by-child basis. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to filtering and monitoring a child's online activities. (I'm a fan of Net Nanny for this key reason, since it lets parents choose what to filter. Other products don't even allow parents to see which sites they block. I think selecting the kinds of sites to block should be up to the parent, not the filtering software designer.)

But the best filter, and one that comes at no additional charge, is the one installed between our children's ears as we teach them how to make judgments. It needs constant updating, but if we take the time to help our children develop good judgment, we never have to worry about what happens when they face the real world, online or offline."

Material supplied by our partners, CyberAngels, reflects their views, not necessarily those of Net Family News. If you have any questions or comments, e-mail us anytime. Parry can be reached at parry@cyberangels.org.

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Filtering on the increase

While we're on the subject: Recent research shows that use of filtering in schools is on the rise - 58% of teachers surveyed reported filtered access in their schools, up from 38% last year. That's according to a Quality Education Data (a Denver-based education market research company) study cited in the New York Times. And a study by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at U. of Pennsylvania shows 31% of parents surveyed using filtering products at home. The Times story presents both positive and negative responses to this data - well worth a look.

And if you'd like to tell us what decision your family has made about filtering at home, we'd love to hear the decision and - even more - the reasoning behind it. Just e-mail us.

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True to its name

Amazon.com is becoming one giant of an e-store!: Books, CDs, gifts, drugs, pet products and now groceries. According to CNET's News.com, Amazon just bought 35% of HomeGrocer.com, which sells groceries online in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle. Amazon's involvement is expected to speed up HomeGrocer's move to sell groceries nationwide.

To see what some early-adopter grocery customers think of services like this, check out a story on the subject in Wired magazine's May issue. It's an East Coast version of the virtual grocery business, with insights into why companies like Peapod and Amazon are willing to sweat this low-sales learning period (one answer: the $500 billion US grocery market!).

Have any of you ordered groceries online? Do tell us what you thought of the experience!

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Bottled history

Here's a remarkable site for the 20th-century history buffs (and scholars) among us. Our thanks to Homework Central for alerting us to The Television News Archive at Vanderbilt University.

With more than 30,000 individual network evening-news broadcasts and more than 9,000 hours of special news programs, it's the most complete archive of TV news anywhere. And it's all free for Netizens. The people at the Archive say they began taping network news shows in August 1968.

"The Television News Archive collection at Vanderbilt University is the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. The collection holds more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming.

The Archive began taping network news on August 5, 1968. ABC's Frank Reynolds reported from the Republican National Convention floor in Miami Beach. In a commentary that night were references to the Republican choices as "a quick-change artist" (Nixon), "a performing artist" (Reagan), and a well-heeled Hamlet (Rockefeller). Then a break for a Green Giant veggies commercial, followed by a piece about potential vice-presidential candidates. After all that a report on fighting near Saigon. Then Arab-Israeli fighting across the Jordan River and a fall in steel prices (can barely remember when steel prices were important - shows some radical shifts in the US economy since 1968!). The rest of the show: more, more, more US politics.

And that's just ABC news that night (also available: NBC News and special reports of that evening). All this in abstracts - transcripts with no complete sentences and lots of …'s. They can be found by: browsing by dates, "retrieving by date" (type in a date and hit "Retrieve"), and searching by year or keyword.

Then there are the "Specialized Collections" - coverage of events, such as the Persian Gulf war of January-March 1991, that got round-the-clock coverage.

As far as actually viewing the video goes, you might call this a verrrry serious Blockbuster Video. One can borrow a copy of a whole news show (the Archive doesn't sell tapes) for 30 days, or ask for an extension. But it's pricey: $165 per tape hour, plus a $10 service charge, plus shipping; $330 for a rush order. There are also subsidized academic rates at less than half those prices. But the focus should be on the abstracts, available to anyone with an Internet connection for free. History literally at our fingertips.

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Subscribers write

Subscriber Becki in Maryland wrote us this week in reference to last week's item on state-imposed filtering in public libraries… "I feel very strongly that it [filtering] should definitely be implemented [in public libraries]. Libraries have always been thought 'safe havens' for children; let's keep it that way. At the same time, I am also strongly in favor of parental supervision whenever possible while a child is using a computer at the library. THAT is the best filtering system."

Also from Becki in response to our question last week: "Ninj [at Yahoo!] feels Yahoo! offers users something "uniquely valuable" (editorial judgment), while the Open Directory people say they offer a more complete directory of Web sites. Which is more important to you?" Becki's answer: "Uniquely valuable."

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We received several e-mails about our lead item on interactive games last week.

From Sherry in Texas:

"I agree that video games, movies, and television are a bad influence on our young people today. I am grateful for the rating system on television, it makes it easier to choose programs suitable for our toddler.

"I feel that if not only the people in charge of the studios but also the actors refused to put these violent and pornographic shows out for people to view, our young people would not get their ideas about violence. If the government is so worried about what kids should do after school or worried about these kids having more than 1 caregiver making the rules, then they should make it possible financially for 1 parent to stay home and raise their kids."

We have since run across an article that addresses Sherry's view that violent games/media and violence in children are linked. It's a New York Times followup to the E3 (game industry) Expo that took place in L.A. last week: "Video Game Industry Gathers Under Siege".

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Then there's the Pokemon phenom, which we spotlighted in last week's games piece. Here are two fun e-mails on fans of those little monsters in New Jersey and Maryland.

Kelly in Maryland writes:

"My son loves the game. I bought it for him for Easter. He has not put it down. He and his cousin both have one. My son has the blue and his cousin has the red [Gameboys, right?]. They are always helping each other with secret ways to catch pokemons, coming up with names for them. They both even keep a notebook with ideas and stuff they have found out, and all the different types, and their names for all of them. It some ways he drives me crazy with it. He always has it with him, especially when I'm trying to talk to him. I had to threaten to take it away a few times, but homework and baseball come first. Then POKEMON is everything else. I definitely got my money's worth out of this game!"

And then the commercial side! A subscriber in New Jersey (who didn't give a name) writes: "My son is 10. He is very much into the Pokemon trading cards. He and his friends are always searching for "sparkle cards" I'm not sure of the suggested retail price for a pack of cards, but some of the stores in our area (southern Bergen County) are charging as much as $11.00. My son actually got $7 for 1 card at a hobby shop on our avenue. I wish kids - mine included - would find as much interest in school work as they do whenever a new fad comes along."

We sense you are not alone! :-)

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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend.

Sincerely,

a href="http://www.netfamilynews.org">Net Family News


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